BryanZ

I wholeheartedly agree with the above post.

Well this should certainly spark some debate. I find Gilt to be far better than any 2-star meals I've had and better than some 3-star restaurants like Cru. Even to say that this restaurant is on the top-leve of the 2-star catergory is pretty absurd, I think. While I disagree with this, I'll direct my criticisms of the review itself to the Bruni thread.

I actually own this book. How random is that? Funny stuff mainly, but there are a couple decent ideas.

Cool, thanks for the links. Now that Craftsteak is getting involved we have another big party who is going to need to be duly compensated.

I've been to all relatively recently (save for Urena) and find Gilt to be the most impressive. Also the most expensive, however. Venue is a somewhat different restaurant than the others, in my opinion. Definitely "molecular" or "hypermodern" or what have you but on a scale that is more overt than the others you mentioned. It's hard to compare Venue in that mix.

And please tell us how you made it, too.

Whatever happened to those hardcore lease problems they were having? Has that been resolved now?

I would say 3 makes the most sense. In my opinion it will be more interesting to see what Michelin says of the place next year.

That syringe technique, if I understand it correctly, is brilliant.

Uni risotto with truffle and nori paste, while not traditional, sounds delicious.

As to being called a "bar," well that's what the owner's call it. I would've said tavern or pub but that's a little pretentious don't you think? Either way, it owns. I talked to one of the owners and the Andy is moving on to different things (I didn't inquire any further) and is being replaced by the long-time sous chef. His name is in the Chronicle piece.

But it seems Andy is moving on. I hope it continues to put out great food.

I was really hoping that was a link to a photo of someone doing exactly that. That would've made my day.

I've heard Bruni's voice before on other NYT multimedia pieces but this podcast thing is quite entertaining. He really does sound like he's whining on the "Life as a Waiter" one.

This menu barely excites me and, at points, even scares me. Japanese "antipasti" seems a curious menu description. The "Iron Chef" chicken noodle soup and duck, duck, duck also has me raising my eyebrows. But then again, I haven't eaten there.

I find that there's a line that needs to be experimented with based on the thickness of what you're cooking. As has been discussed a tender piece of relatively thin meat might only need less than an hour in the bath. With that said, you're probably best off somewhere between the 2-6 hour range. If you're cooking a duck breast for 12 hours or more the texture might become very strange. Generally I find that if you go by your "gut" you can't go wrong with sous vide. A duck breast doesn't need ridiculous amounts of cooking so why do it?

I think that most people would still agree that the Federal serves some of the best bar food in the Triangle. I think it's a restaurant worthy of having its own thread. My feelings as seen in The Chronicle.

Water temp. was described by Nathanm's famous and valuable tables. Four hours just seemed right to me. I didn't have the option to do a full scientific flight of times, but it seemed to work very well for me.

Duck breast sous vide is awesome. Here's my take.

What's a lot of political b.s.? Not being pressured to toe the administration line? I would think that independence would serve you well. I can't think of a student newspaper at an Ivy League-class university (a group that includes Duke, Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Chicago) that isn't. (I think the student newspapers at the "public Ivies" -- Cal-Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Virginia et al. -- are connected to their universities' J-schools, but I'm not absolutely certain about this.) Which isn't to say that the administration doesn't try to influence what gets in the papers. I plan a surfing safari within the next few days. Could you do us a favor and give a heads-up on the important stories that are upcoming? ← The reason I made the point about being an independent student newspaper was in regards to getting pay and course credit. I believe that jkonick goes to a state school which would have a higher chance of being affiliated with the school's administration. This gives them less freedom of press but a greater chance for pay and credit. I like being independent, I think it adds to our cred. I'm not sure what a "surfing safari" is, but I'm assuming you're referring to the world wide interweb. If that's the case, in the next couple weeks I've got a story coming out about Iron Chef America. A local chef recently finished taping an episode, and I was able to get an interview with him. I'm also working on a large piece on the future of "green" dining at Duke. Although the subject of green dining is hot on many campuses (greater recycling initiatives, responsible waste disposal, sustainable farming, traceable ingredient identification), I plan to focus on the recent push toward local, artisinal products now being featured at many of our new eateries. These aren't exactly big issues on the national scale but they're cool for our community.

Wow, that's some great looking food. There seems to a rapid turnover of dishes, as nothing posted is even similar to what I had on my visit in the late fall. Constantly innovating is a great thing.

I go to Duke. We put out one of the better student newspapers in the Southeast. I don't really see it as harsh, since I didn't know that kids at other schools got paid or got credit. Go figure. I enjoy it and eat out a lot anyway, so yeah. I think the reason we don't get credit or pay is because we're independent. As in, we're not explicitly sponsored (though we are the official student daily newspaper) by the school so that means we aren't pressured to write according to the bias of the school's administration. It's a lot of political b.s. but I think we do a good job. If you're so inclined you can find me at www.chronicle.duke.edu and search for my last name "zupon." I've got some decently big stories coming up in the next couple weeks, and I'm doing everything I can to expand my role as both a student voice and student educator.

Classy, Frank, classy. ← I think he's just implying that some coke use was taking place...which is probably true and worth mentioning in the context of a restaurant's vibe. I take it you read it differently than I.... ← I also wondered if it may be another case of NFL cheerleaders.But of coarse I'm guilty of having a dirty mind at least once a year. ← well, I think that's what Bryanz was reading Bruni as implying...thus his "classless" remark. I just read it as implying cocaine use (the standard reason for two people to go into the bathroom together in a Manhattan restaurant or bar). ← Cocaine use or whatever else, a comment like that really has no place in a restaurant review. Sure he wants to comment on the scene, but by that point in the review it was just overkill.

I found this waiter's life thing to be quite entertaining. Nothing groudbreaking here but one of my favorite Bruni pieces.

I'm going to pose a somewhat related question. Hopefully I'll get some answers. What do you think is a fair policy toward receiving comp'd meals? Generally, I'm against this, as is my newspaper, but my budget won't allow me to review a couple significant restaurants. If I've been offered to come in by a restaurant publicist or something like that, is it unethical to accept? If accepting a comp'd meal will get me what I think is a good and interesting story, is it worth fighting my higher-ups to let me take it?